Blog #2

‘Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything’. Plato

Music has a huge grip on our brain chemistry, it has the power to manipulate emotion and even the meaning behind a visual (like in film for instance). It has brought enormous groups of people together, and has even been used to shape the society in which we live today.

There is no doubt that making and listening to music can have some powerful therapeutic effects on the human body and mind, and can help many people going through difficult and emotional times in their lives.

This is why I feel that It is important for teenagers and younger children to have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument. By learning to play, they would have the tools to express themselves, and to create an outlet for any excess emotions and energy that may experience.

Being able to play an instrument means having a second voice and another space in which to mould excess emotions into something beautiful and I truly believe that this can give people a significant edge in life.

‘Music is a powerful tool in galvanizing people around an issue. There's no better way to get your point across than to put it in a beautiful song.’ Ed Sheeran

The world we live in today can be a daunting place for a young person, and with an ever increasing amount of information being hurled around through social media and other media outlets, the world can feel quite turbulent for someone who is still finding their place.

For me at least, having an interest in music gave me one thing to be certain about, and helped ground me during the madness that is growing up.

Despite taking guitar lessons from the age of 8, I would honestly say that the first couple of years involved very little progress with the instrument. My first guitar teacher at school failed to teach me – or any of my classmates - anything of real value during our lessons, and so many of my friends quickly lost interest. In fact, it wasn’t until this particular guitar teacher left and the school employed a new (better) tutor that I actually realized what I had been missing out on. Of course learning any instrument requires a lot of hard work, and is not something that will happen overnight. However, a good teacher will always make a student feel as though they are improving, by giving them the best education possible.

That’s why I decided to become a guitar teacher here in Manchester. Because I had a lot of moments in my development as a guitar player that I thought could have been done differently, issues that I wish to fix for future generations.